Everything that descends must converge. The rhetoric of rationalization, for instance. George, meet Khalid:
I don’t like to kill children and the kids. Never Islam are, give me green light to kill peoples. Killing, as in the Christianity, Jews, and Islam, are prohibited. But there are exception of rule when you are killing people in Iraq. You said we have to do it. We don’t like Saddam. But this the way to deal with Saddam. Same thing you are saying. Same language you use, I use.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed also said:
"If now George Washington. If now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington he being arrested through Britain. For sure he, they would consider him enemy combatant. But American they consider him as hero."
Now I don't think he's doing George Washington justice here, but basically he's right.
If you win, you're a hero. If you lose, you'll be hanged.
And if you wonder why so many Islamist suicide bombers come from wealthy and privileged failies - revolutions and guerilla fighters always have been led by renegades.
Check out George Washington's biography.
Posted by: Peter on March 16, 2007 3:19 PMI don't know that Washington was much of a renegade. His family wasn't the richest in Virginia, but they were pretty rich. And he married the daughter of the richest family in Virginia. And he made himself plenty of money on top of that as a land grabber and real estate speculator. If he was a renegade he was pretty secretive about it. His reputation was as a close-mouth, upright, up-tight establishment man, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but steady and dependable. (I'm not a historian, but that's my impression anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, somebody.)
Posted by: Red Tide on March 16, 2007 5:09 PM